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        “On the other hand, the shuttering of shops and businesses during lockdowns has meant that those workers that have retained their jobs—and incomes—have not been able to spend their earnings as they might usually do. The result has been that this group of workers has experienced an involuntary rise in their savings,” he added.
“The result of all of this has been a schism in household finances: one chunk of the population has either experienced a loss of income or is living under threat of an imminent loss of income, while another is flush with cash having experienced a large and involuntary rise in savings. This situation is without parallel in modern recessions. How it plays out will go a long way to determine the pace and shape of the wider economic recovery that now appears to be under way,” he concluded.
Rent, food and transport accounted for the largest shares in Turkish households’ total expenditures in 2019​, a survey conducted by Turkey’s national statistics authority, TUIK, ​showed​.
More than 24% of all expenditures went on rent last year, up from 23.4% in 2018, while the spending share for food was 20.8% and transport captured 16.5%.
Turks spent some TRY1,200 on average on rent last year, up from TRY1,000 in 2018 and food expenditure averaged TRY1,000 in 2019 versus TRY900 in the previous year.
Only 2.2% went on health expenditures (TRY112) and communication (TRY180) took a 3.6% share.
Entertainment and culture expenditures averaged TRY150, accounting for only 3.1% of the total.
  5.0​ External Sector & Trade
5.1​ Balance of payments, current account
5.1.1 ​Import/export dynamics
                2017
2018
2019
H1
                                USD bn
y/y (%)
USD bn
y/y (%)
USD bn
y/y (%)
USD bn
y/y (%)
                                    Balance
-77
37
-55
-28
-31
-44
-24
59
                                    Exports
157
10
168
7
172
2
71
-15
                                    Imports
234
18
223
-5
203
-9
95
-4
                                    Capital Goods
33
-8
29
-12
26
-12
13
9
                                    Intermediate
171
28
170
-1
158
-7
72
-7
                          Consumption
28
2
23
-20
18
-19
9
6
          source: tuik, trade ministry
    Turkey’s trade deficit contracted, for the first time since July 2019, by 3% y/y to $3.1bn in June, according to ​data​ from the trade ministry.
Since April, Turkey has stepped up its import compression efforts. On June 7, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hiked tariffs on about 150 items.
   24​ TURKEY Country Report​ August 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com
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